Learning That Free Is Not a Business
Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has a great editorial in this morning's Wall Street Journal, entitled Giving Stuff Away on the Internet, in which he ponders why he gives so much of his written material away for free on the Internet. Ironic, then, that only a teaser first two paragraphs of the WSJ editorial that he wrote are up on the Opinion Journal page...to get the whole thing you have to be a WSJ online subscriber.
Mr. Adams is learning what a great many Internet investors are learning: that free is not a business. eBay learned it when they bought Skype, or rather learned it about two years after they bought Skype. I'm thinking Microsoft is overpaying for a fraction of Facebook for the same reason. You have to have a plan for monetizing the eyeballs. Google did a great job of this, which is why they are over $700 a share.
Even so, I don't think Mr. Adams will stop blogging, just because he doesn't make much money at it. I think he would have a hard time letting go of the "intangible benefits," such as the inspiration he gets for his Dilbert strip from commenters on his blog.
Free is not a business...but it can still be worthwhile!
I agree with you that free is not a business. In my post http://flatplanetphone.com/wordpress/?p=278
I analyzed the so called "free calls" market, and asked providers to tell the truth!
Posted by: Moshe Maeir | November 04, 2007 at 06:24 AM